Ghost Lover

“What in God’s name happened here” Austin exclaimed.

He had woken up that morning in high spirits, regardless of what happened between him and his brother. He smiled all through his journey to school, jumping and trying to touch branches of some trees along the way to school. His happiness was proudly sponsored by Nala and not following the bus was just an attempt not to see her till his training session with her again.

All his happiness vanished as soon as he entered the class and noticed that his table was missing a leg.

“What happened here?” he repeated, directing his questions to his classmate who sat at the front roll.

He shook his head indicating he didn’t know what happened. His eyes searched the classroom and stopped on Jade who sat at the back with some of his friends laughing. The only reasonable thing he could think of was Jade messing with him again because of his brother. He marched towards him with every ounce of anger. He pounded his hands on Jade’s table hard and that made the class go silent. The few students in the class had their eyes on him, he was Panting like a wounded lion and staring at Jade like a predator. There was something different about this Austin and that was he hated being picked on for no reason.

“Hey man, what’s up?” Jade smiled, soaked in confusion.

“You are going to pretend like you don’t know why I’m here”Content bel0ngs to Nôvel(D)r/a/ma.Org.

Jade shrugged, “I don’t have any idea man”

“I bet you don’t!” Austin exclaimed and pointed his hands at his table.

Jade stretched his head forward to see what he was pointing to and burst out into laughter. “Oh shit.”

His friend’s too joined him in laughing, some held Austin in an attempt not to fall while laughing. Austin wasn’t having any of it, he pushed them off, and bent towards Jade.

“Don’t play with me man” He muttered slowly

“Okay okay..” Jade raised his hands and coughed, ” In as much as I would love to take credit for that beautiful work of art, I didn’t do it. Plus you should know that’s not my style.” He stood up, straightened his collar and spoke with a more fierce tone. “I would beat you and leave you to bleed if I wanted to come for you Austin”

Austin could feel his leg weaken as those last words left the lips of Jade, but he tried not to show that he was scared about what he said. He stood there with his eyes still fixated on Jade’s.

Suddenly his face broke out a smile “but then we are cool Austin” he moved closer to Austin, but Austin didn’t move back either. He held Austin’s collar and straightened it too. “I didn’t do that, it’ll better for you to believe me”

Austin pushed his hands off him and went back to his seat to meet his three legged table. He believed Jade, not because he was scared but Jade had some point. Jade wouldn’t come to his table if he wanted to get his revenge, he was someone who believed in using Fist for Judgement.

He dropped his bag on his seat and went into the woods just behind the School stadium. His intention was to look for any abandoned wood, twigs or branches that he could use in sustaining his table’s balance till the day was over.

He was shocked at what a beautiful sight this place was. It was one thing seeing it from the sitting stands in the football field, but it’s an entirely different feeling being there. The trees were like some Giant fortress, tall with its branches fighting off the sun. The grasses were healthy and beautiful, the atmosphere cool and moist. Austin thought about having a picnic date with Nala here, he was sure she’d love it.

He decided to leave his admiration for the woods and focus on getting a replacement for his injured bench as he thought of it. He went around for almost thirty minutes but didn’t see anything useful

to him. It’s either the branches were too short or too long. He tried to break the longer ones to fit his measurements but they were too hard and wouldn’t succumb to his constant hitting on the ground.

He sighed after a long and fruitless search for it, he started making his way back to the class.

“Given up already?” Tasha asked, smiling and sitting on one of the shorter trees with her legs swinging. He stood still after hearing her voice, he wouldn’t say he wasn’t getting used to her random pop ups out of nothing

“What do you want this time?” He asked, turning to face her only for him to be filled with bewilderment. She was holding the broken leg of his table. Austin ran his hands through his hair and licked his lips

“Give it to me,” he muttered slowly. Tasha could tell he was pissed with his uneasy body movement, his eyes were squinted at her and she knew he was more dangerous now than ever. His voice was low but audacious.

“Why should I do that?”

Austin stunned by her question, “what do you mean, why should you do that”

“Is it yours?” She grinned

Austin sighed hard, in an attempt to control his anger which was rising really fast, he tried to speak but stopped, then tried again. “Just please give it to me and let me go”

“Is it yours?” Tasha asked again, with a Stern face this time.

“Yes it’s mine” he replied calmly.

Tasha nodded and smiled. She took one last look at it and threw it with all her might at Austin. He was Shocked by her move and he knew it was going straight for his shoulders, he took a knee down and tilted his head to the side as it went past him grazing the top of his shoulder. He looked up immediately and didn’t see her anymore, he turned quickly and met her standing behind him, smiling with it in her hand.

“Here” she said, handing it over to him with a smirk on her face. Austin was busy with the thought, if she was crazy or she was just a lunatic.

“Why in God’s name would you do that!” he screamed.

“Because I knew it’ll miss you”

Austin raised his hands to stop her “it didn’t miss me, I dodged it”

” Well good for you” she replied unapologetically.

“What was the point of all this” he inquired, collecting his table’s leg from her. “Breaking the leg of my table, letting me do all this for nothing, you are stressing me Tasha!” his voice rising.

“I knew you could take it” she licked her lips as she muttered slowly, taking her time to stare at him from head to toe and making sure he noticed it.

“What..” he paused, “what do you mean?”

“Well, I’ve seen you naked. So I know these things baby boy”

“Oh My God” Austin walked past her immediately, feeling embarrassed. He wished the earth could just open up and take him in. What exactly can she do and not do? He stopped abruptly, almost locking lips with her after she appeared in front of him again.

“But we weren’t done talking” she whispered, she leaned towards him and he moved back. She walked towards him and he moved back. He felt like a prey and she was the predator, he wasn’t scared but he didn’t feel in control of the situation. She had him in her hands and she knew it now. His legs got weak with every step she took towards him, he hated her but for some reason he just wanted to stop and let her have her way with him. He knew his body wanted this but did he want that?

“You know it’s rude to walk out on a lady” she said, holding his hands and stopping him from moving. He didn’t try to let go, he couldn’t. His body succumbed immediately he felt her delicate palms on his.